The Blackout Murders - The Compelling True Story (Hardcover)

While the Luftwaffe bombed London and its citizens fled underground, a killer emerged from the shadows to satisfy his inner darkness...In February 1942, a woman was found strangled in a London air raid shelter. Seven days later, the man dubbed as the 'Blackout Ripper' had struck six times - his crimes becoming more brutal at each turn. Strangulation was often followed by brutal sex acts and mutilation. The victims varied from a prostitute to a teacher - nobody knew where the man, described by a pathologist at the time as 'a savage sexual maniac', would strike next. In the utter darkness of the blackout, where not even a crack of light was allowed to show for fear of German bombs, the killer could hide and strike at will at an already terrified population. Chief Superintendent Frederick Cherrill, head of Scotland Yard's revolutionary fingerprint could find no apparent motive. The killer left few clues in his bloody wake- until a slip up revealed his true identity, and shocked a city that thought it had seen it all. In this compelling true life thriller, The Blackout Murders, Simon Read provides the reader with the unvarnished reality of a killer who seemed so decent, cheerful and normal...A native Briton, Simon Read currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area where he works as an award-winning newspaper reporter. His previous works of non-fiction, include The Killing Skies: RAF Bomber Command at War and On The House: The Bizarre Killing of Michael Malloy.